MASTERPIECEIndian SummersSundays, September 27 – November 22, 2015 at 9pm ETJulie Walters stars as the glamorous doyenne of an English social club in the twilight era ofBritish rule in India. Set in a subtropical paradise, Indian Summers explores the collision ofthe high-living English ruling class with the local people agitating for Indianindependence. As the drama unfolds, the two sides alternately clash and merge in anintricate game of power, politics, and passion. Also starring in this lavish production areHenry Lloyd-Hughes, Jemima West, Nikesh Patel, Roshan Seth, and Lillete Dubey.Shown from left to right: Julie Walters as Cynthia Coffin and Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Ralph Whelan(C) New Pictures and Channel 4 for MASTERPIECE in association with All3Media International

For those of us who thrilled to “The Jewel in the Crown,” the latest PBS “Masterpiece” saga, “Indian Summers,” will scratch the same itch. As the Brits enjoy high tea on the subcontinent, the colors are so vivid, the characters so rich, the period piece so faithfully depicted, you can practically smell the Punjabi spices.

Julie Walters (the Harry Potter films, and an Oscar nominee for “Billy Elliot” and “Educating Rita”) portrays Cynthia Coffin. Cynthia is the scheming doyenne of an English social club at the end of the empire, dedicated to keeping traditions in place as the locals agitate for independence. Henry Lloyd-Hughes (“Madame Bovary”) portrays Ralph Whelan, the private secretary to the British Viceroy of India.

Set in 1932, the 10-part saga involves race, revolution, the Raj and attractions across class and caste lines. The story opens as the British upper crust make the annual trek to the colonial retreat of Simla in the Himalayan foothills, where they’ve concocted a miniature England, built around cocktails at the Royal Club.

A number of British, Indian and Pakistani stars fill the cast, including Bollywood legends Lillete Dubey (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) and Alyy Khan (“Sharpe’s Challenge”).

“Indian Summers” centers on three brother-sister pairs. Ralph (Lloyd-Hughes) a politically ambitious bachelor, is joined by Alice (Jemima West of “The Borgias”), his beautiful younger sister who appears suddenly from England with her little boy. Her husband is conspicuously absent.

Next, Aafrin Dalal (Nikesh Patel), an idealistic clerk in the elite Indian Civil Service, wins Ralph’s trust by saving his life. Aafrin is put on a fast track in the British bureaucracy, but his sister Sooni (Aysha Kala of “Shameless”), an activist for national independence, threatens his career.

Finally, two Americans: Eugene Mathers (Edward Hogg, “The Borgias”), an expatriate from a
wealthy Chicago family, who has been taken in by Ralph; and Eugene’s seductive sister, Madeline (Olivia Grant, “Endeavour”), who arrives to care for her brother but ends up caring for Ralph.

As the Brits party and conduct illicit affairs, Gandhi is off-camera staging a hunger strike from prison that will reverberate through the empire.

“Indian Summers” will air on Sunday nights, Sept. 27 through Nov. 22, starting with a 90-minute installment, 9-10:30 p.m. locally on RMPBS. (Second through

This photo released by Masterpiece/BBC shows Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell in a scene from episode 1 of the television series, “Wolf Hall.” The show debuts April 5, 2015 at 10 p.m. ET on PBS. (Giles Keyte/Playground & Company via The Associated Press/MasterPiece/BBC)

“Wolf Hall”, the six-hour adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novels, “Wolf Hall” and “Bring Up the Bodies,” premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on RMPBS. Gorgeous, high-minded, beautifully acted and sluggish, it may be a stretch for those more accustomed to the Olivia Pope-Doug Stamper-Ray Donovan versions of fixers.

The historical drama provides a portrait of Thomas Cromwell, the enigmatic consigliere to King Henry VIII, who cleverly worked the angles in the Tudor court always thinking a few steps ahead. Nothing viewers have seen the murderous modern TV fixers do was beyond his reach.

Mark Rylance, the Tony Award-winner rarely seen on American TV, portrays Cromwell as a tortured soul, survivor of an abusive father who tragically lost his family to the plague, who dedicates himself to king and country. Damian Lewis (“Homeland”) plays King Henry VIII, obsessed with producing a male heir to the throne. Claire Foy (“Little Dorrit”) plays the future queen Anne Boleyn.

Prepare to bid farwell to Downton. Carnival Films, the producer of “Downton Abbey” along with ITV, the U.K. home of the drama, said Thursday that season 6 will be the final season of the global hit. “Downton” has been the top PBS drama in the 44-year history of “Masterpiece,” an unusual ratings-grabber for the noncommercial network.

The news was not shocking, considering it has been long rumored and NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt not long ago told TV critics his network’s Julian Fellowes’ period drama, “The Gilded Age,” (about financial titans in New York in the 1880s) was moving forward.

Season 5 of “Downton” had a weekly average audience of 12.9 million viewers over its nine-week run, nearly even with that for Season 4 (13.3 million), according to Nielsen data.

“Millions of people around the world have followed the journey of the Crawley family and those who serve them for the last five years. Inevitably there comes a time when all
shows should end and ‘Downton’ is no exception. We wanted to close the doors of ‘Downton Abbey’ when it felt right and natural for the storylines to come together and when the show was still being enjoyed so much by its fans. We can promise a final season full of all the usual drama and intrigue, but with the added excitement of discovering how and where they all end up…”

“Breathless,” from “Masterpiece” on PBS, combines period styles and evolving ’60s attitudes with a dashing surgeon and a smart Chief Inspector to yield an old-school mystery within a hospital drama.

The miniseries boasts the presence of Derek of “Smash” (actually Jack Davenport as the suave Dr. Otto Powell) and Jorah Mormont of “Game of Thrones” (actually Iain Glen as a detective) in a cleverly plotted, visually absorbing tale. The three-part “Breathless” premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on Rocky Mountain PBS and continues for the next two Sunday nights (Aug. 31, Sept. 7).

There are more secrets than babies on the obstetrics ward where Dr. Otto Powell (Davenport) works and flirts. His marriage is not what it seems, he runs an illegal sideline in women’s gynecological services, and there are all sorts of connections between the doctors and nurses, some married, some unmarried and others somewhere in-between. But just as the sudsy hospital drama is taking shape, the tale veers into old-school mystery territory when a Scotland Yard detective shows up.

Iain Glen (“GoT,” “Downton Abbey”) plays Chief Inspector Ronald Mulligan, whose daughter Maureen (Holli Dempsey) is a patient in The New London Hospital where Powell (Davenport) works. The men share some dark history, dating to Cyprus in 1953 when Mulligan was a sergeant in the military police and Otto was in the Army Medical Corps. And, of course, they’re both harboring secrets. Suffice to say Mulligan is envious of Powell’s life and enchanted by Powell’s wife.

Women’s liberation, abortion, cover ups and more play into the story, a contained, British version of the swinging ’60s period drama.

Let’s acknowledge that “Downton Abbey” is a supremely popular entertainment that owes as much to the wardrobe department as to its soapy script. Let’s not pretend it is as well crafted as the earlier “Upstairs, Downstairs.” And let’s enjoy it for what it is, escapism that lets us feel a slight superiority for watching a British period piece rather than “General Hospital.”

That said, Sunday’s episode allowed a contract dispute to dictate the drama, offering little logic or foreshadowing before killing off a main character. Matthew Crawley met a violent end after dropping sudsy lines like “I’m doing a jig! I feel as if I had swallowed a box of fireworks!” upon the birth of his son. Exit actor Dan Stevens, stage left, for a career on Broadway or in movies or wherever he hopes this “Downton” boost will take him. It was a cheap solution to a casting problem that didn’t earn the emotional wallop it intended.

Stevens previously told the U.K.’s Telegraph:

“We were always optioned for three years,” Stevens, who played the dashing Matthew Crawley and love interest to Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) said. “And when that came up it was a very difficult decision. But it felt like a good time to take stock, to take a moment. From a personal point of view, I wanted a chance to do other things. “It is a very monopolizing job. So there is a strange sense of liberation at the same time as great sadness because I am very, very fond of the show and always will be.”

Good for him, but “Downton” viewers are forgiven for feeling manipulated.

Celebrating the bicentennial of Charles Dickens’ birth, PBS will offer two new adaptations in April.

“Great Expectations,” airing in two parts, April 1 & April 8, stars Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham, a woman jilted at the altar in her youth. Newcomer Douglas Booth stars as Pip, the young man caught in Miss Havisham’s lair, but with a mysterious benefactor.

McKellen’s full-frontal nudity in the stage version would be translated to the small screen. PBS President Paula Kerger dodged. But the answer, of course, is no way. In this climate, it’s not worth the argument.

Only PBS would start the day with a panel about archeological evidence of the Bible’s meanings (guaranteed to anger literalists, according to the producers), followed by a spirited show on parallel universes (if it’s not one thing it’s another and probably both).

The good news for “Masterpiece” fans is that the rennovation of that series, formerly under the Mobil banner, has been quite successful. The ratings are up for “Masterpiece Mystery” and “Masterpiece Classic.” The third phase, “Masterpiece Contemporary,” debuts this fall with “The Last Enemy,” a five-parter about government surveillance starring Robert Carlyle (“The Full Monty”).

Why overhaul a solid brand? “It would have been a crime not to,” said “Masterpiece” executive producer Rebecca Eaton. “In this town, every 35-year-old icon needs sprucing up.”

Other headlines: Kenneth Branaugh will star in and co-produce a new series based on the Kurt Wallander detective books. Four new Miss Marple stories starring Julia McKenzie and four new Hercule Poirot stories starring David Suchet are due in 2009.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.